1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure generally relates to techniques for extracting parameters from a message received on a network interface. More specifically, this disclosure relates to techniques for using a format decoder to extract parameters from a message for later processing by a message handler executing in application logic.
2. Related Art
Network communication between computing devices involves the exchange of messages. Each message has a defined structure, and receiving a message involves processing the message to determine the message boundaries, identify the message type, and extract data fields. These operations are typically performed by a format decoder that decodes a byte sequence that is being received from a network interface. The format decoder often stores such data fields in a register file (or other storage structure) and then signals a message handler that proceeds to operate upon the data fields.
Implementations of format decoders typically involve either generic software solutions or custom hardware solutions that are targeted toward a particular application and/or protocol. Targeted hardware solutions offer high throughput and low fixed latency, but can only process messages for the targeted set of protocols and applications. Generic software solutions offer more flexibility, but also often introduce a significant (and variable) amount of latency as well as a need for additional memory resources.
Hence, what is needed are techniques for receiving and handling messages that do not suffer from the above-described problems of existing techniques.